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June 5, 2009

Friday Squid Blogging: Flying Squid

Ommastrephid squids "glide over the ocean surface."

Posted on June 5, 2009 at 4:18 PM13 CommentsView Blog Reactions

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Comments

Awesome photo, but "flying" is not just for air. Penguins fly underwater.

Posted by: Davi Ottenheimer at June 5, 2009 4:45 PM


Marvelous, but what does this have to do with a secure proxy server.

Posted by: Wiskers in Menlo at June 5, 2009 5:36 PM


Nice photo. Best example of a natural canard configuration I've ever seen.

Posted by: spin at June 5, 2009 8:23 PM


If Architeuthis masters flight then we are all doomed.

Posted by: Aguirre at June 6, 2009 1:10 AM


Are you sure that is not a hoax? In the only picture showing the flying squid foreground and background are very unrelated, and you don't see were the squid left the water.

Furthermore I doubt the propulsion apparatus of squid can provide the necessary speed to leave water and get the squid gliding (especially with that ratio of mass to lifting sufaces).

Does anybody have another source for this?

Posted by: vader at June 6, 2009 7:06 AM


@vader

Not that wikipedia's definitive...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Posted by: bob at June 6, 2009 7:43 PM


Look a whole shoal:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/batabidd/3388851047/

Somehow I think this particular photo is a fake.

Posted by: Aguirre at June 6, 2009 9:20 PM


@Aguirre: I agree, looks shopped.

However, they can and do glide in the air for a distance.

I once got hit in the chest by a flying fish while in a boat.

Posted by: DaveC at June 7, 2009 4:28 PM


> I once got hit in the chest by a flying fish while in a boat.

What does that prove about squids?

> Not that wikipedia's definitive...

No, it ain't. I still believe, it's a hoax. Perhaps rather long term and elaborate, but none the less. E.g. the Humboldt squid ist linked a "Jumbo flying squid". At the Humbold squid page (humbold suid is, AFAIR a rather common squid) there's of course no mention of flying or gliding. One would expect, wouldn't one?
Somehow this all smells fishy. And no explanation why a squid should be able to glide with such a bad ratio of lifting surface to mass, much worse than that of a flying fish.

No, I don't believe it-

Posted by: vader at June 7, 2009 7:43 PM


Vader, you should look into what the Tree of Life Web Project is. Their articles are written by biologists, and they're not given to hoaxes.

Or you can read about it on p. 79 of Hanlon and Messenger's _Cephalopod Behaviour_:

"Sometimes jetting takes a squid out of the water and there are several 'flying' squids known (e.g. oegopsids such as Onychoteuthis spp., Dosidicus gigas and some other ommastrephids); these animals may then glide tens of metres... but they do not have fins especially well modified for gliding and thus do not glide nearly as far as flying fishes."

Posted by: Moderator at June 7, 2009 11:26 PM


For academic reference:

Title: New observations on airborne jet propulsion (flight) in squid, with a review of previous reports
Author(s): Macia, S
Source: JOURNAL OF MOLLUSCAN STUDIES Volume: 70 Pages: 297-299 Published: AUG 2004

Link to first page of article:
http://mollus.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/...

Posted by: Aguirre at June 7, 2009 11:58 PM


> Their articles are written by biologists, and they're not given to hoaxes.

And they authenticate their contributors how?

Never mind. Perhaps I'm wrong. But I can't find a even genuinely looking picture of a flying squid.

Posted by: vader at June 8, 2009 4:07 PM


Just in case folks are still monitoring this thread.
They do indeed glide over the water.

(1993) The role of neon flying squid Ommastrephes bartrami, in the North Pacific ... (Cephalopoda) in the North Pacific ocean. Marine Biology 131: 275-282. ...
www.southpacificrfmo.org/assets/Species-Profiles-Final/o%20bartrami%20species%20profile%20040507.doc - page 5
"O. bartrami have been observed to fly a distance of 10 - 20 m at 1 - 2 m height off the sea surface. It is believed that the gliding-like flying behaviour is analogous to flying fish with the aim of escaping from predators (Murata 1988)."

I worked on these critters when I was at NOAA-National Marine Fisheries Service in the 80's.

In fact, there are squid jigs used in Japan that are specially made for flying squid species.

Posted by: Neon Flying Squid at June 10, 2009 12:19 PM


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